Television →

#3: Matt Groening was ‘appalled and embarrassed’ by the depiction of Australia in The Simpsons. The Season 6, Episode 16 caper received a mixed response in Australia upon its initial screening on Network Ten in 1995, but is now considered a classic. Despite participating in the DVD commentary for the episode, Groening’s feelings about ‘Bart vs. Australia’ has been expressed for the first time two decades later. Surely, it was not intended to serve as a good will gesture linked to his Down Under appearance…

#5: Daniel Davis didn’t like his iconic character’s storyline resolution on The Nanny. In Melbourne for the Australian Movie & Comic Expo, Davis revealed that the nuptials between his sharp-tongued Niles and sparring partner C.C. Babcock (Lauren Lane) was pointless. ‘C.C. and I had been so oil and water – I didn’t buy that we would end up married.’

#6: Ian Smith, immortalised as Harold Bishop on Neighbours, used to work behind the scenes on the classic drama Prisoner as a writer, script editor, and associate producer. (He also has the recurring role of Ted Douglas.) Okay, this is well known to fans. But what perhaps isn’t known is that Smith gave the iconic Joan Ferguson (Maggie Kirkpatrick) her nickname⎯Freak.

Smith revealed this on All Star Family Feud: Wentworth vs. Prisoner among a number of other insights into his lengthy career.

Movies →

Gary Dubin on the set of Jaws 2 (1978). (Image: Lori Dubin)

#7: Actor Gary Dubin died of bone cancer, aged 57. Best known for roles in his youth, Dubin played a boy whose plush toy (concealing smuggled jewels) is snatched from him by Jill St. John at a carnival in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971). He also memorably played Eddie in Jaws 2 (1978), whose untimely demise is one of the most heartfelt moments in the film.

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